One state-of-the-art single-stage reusable aerospace vehicle is known to comprise a fuselage incorporating a crew cabin and a payload compartment, a landing gear, a variable-sweep wing, a vertical tail, a power plant, an orbital maneuvering system, and a crew escape system (cf "Novosti zarubezhnoi tekhniki" (Novelties of science and technology abroad) ,Aerospace and rocket engineering, 1988, No.13 Issued by the Joukovski Central aerodynamic institute, Moscow, p.p. . 3-4 (in Russian).
One more state-of-the-art single-stage reusable aerospace vehicle is known to comprise a fuselage provided with a crew compartment, a payload compartment, and a center conical body, a landing gear incorporating a multiwheel bogey and a nose wheel, a variable-sweep wing, a power plant, an orbital maneuvering system with final control elements, and a crew escape system with an escape module (cf. the newspaper "Za rubezhom" (News from abroad),Moscow, 1986,No.27(1356),pp.12-14(in Russian).
In the aforementioned known single-stage reusable aerospace vehicles the fuselage internal volume is used inadequately efficiently for payload stowage due to accommodation of the power plant in the vehicle fuselage. Said vehicles require a substantially longer runway for taking-off and landing; the vehicle has a low climbing rate because its climbing is effected only due to wing lift. In addition, the heretofore-known constructions of aerospace vehicles are not provided with a crew escape system in case of emergency while in an orbital flight; they are inadequately maneuverable in an orbital flight; their movability over the airfield of a home airdrome is restricted.
One prior-art crew escape system of a single-stage reusable aerospace vehicle, comprising an escape module and an ejection mechanism of said escape module. The escape module is provided with means for crew accommodation, life support, power supply, as well as an alighting gear incorporating an aerodynamic decelerator and a parachute landing system provided with soft landing engines (cf. "Novosti zarubezhnoi tekhniki" (Novelties of science and technology abroad), Aerospace and rocket engineering, 1988, No.13, Issued by the Joukovski Central Aerohydrodynamic institute, Moscow, pp. 12-14 (in Russian).
The aforementioned crew escape system is applicable only in the atmosphere, that is, during orbital injection of the vehicle and its return to the Earth.